“Timken recently broke ground on a $225 million expansion of its steel plant outside of Canton,” according to the story. “And while shipping welding equipment or ball bearings across the ocean isn't necessarily as expensive as shipping wooden cabinets, there are myriad reasons why it makes sense for both firms to keep making things in the United States.”

Timken “has had to change its business somewhat to stay committed to U.S. manufacturing -- getting out of commodity bearings, diversifying away from automotive applications, and focusing on only highly engineered products -- but it really likes the idea of manufacturing in the place where it will ultimately sell the product,” The Motley Fool writes. “One reason for this is the enhanced ability to service customers and get feedback, but the other is that doing so removes much of the currency risk that can cripple a company's profit in the current volatile environment.”

Lincoln Electric, meanwhile, has a U.S.-centric approach to its work force that “holds on to thousands of years of collective manufacturing experience. This enables the company to keep costs down at its U.S. plant and accelerate a new product innovation cycle that is responsible for the bulk of the company's recent sales growth.”

The Motley Fool concludes that domestically oriented companies such as Timken and Lincoln Electric “are establishing durable competitive advantages such as best-in-class customer service or superior research and development capabilities, rather than reaching for fleeting comparative advantages such as a temporarily reduced labor cost.”

This and that

High stakes: Cleveland and Ohio are at the center of an effort to crack down on Internet cafes, according to this story from The Wall Street Journal.

The venues allow people to play simulated slot-machine games in settings that resemble miniature — and decidedly less attractive — Las Vegas casino floors. They have proliferated nationwide, though in recent months “have come under siege from state and local authorities in a number of states, including Ohio, South Carolina, Michigan, Texas and North Carolina,” The Journal notes. “Dozens of cafes have been raided and branded illegal gambling parlors. Some state lawmakers are trying to ban such cafes or impose hefty taxes.”

Cafe owners say they are protected by laws governing promotions and sweepstakes that allow, for example, McDonald's to give prizes to customers.

"The business model meets the letter of the law," says Chase Brooks, who along with partners runs about 25 cafes in Texas, North Carolina, Ohio and Florida.

The situation “is especially hot in Ohio, where people will soon have the choice of going to four large casinos, approved by voters, or myriad Internet cafes, some of which stay open until the early hours of the morning,” The Journal notes.

Gov. John Kasich in June signed a one-year moratorium on new cafes and required existing ones to register with the attorney general's office. Nearly 800 cafes registered, far more than the 300 or so Attorney General Mike DeWine thought existed.

"It is like the wild, wild West," he tells The Journal. It's a "fiction not to call it gambling."

Global view: Every vote counts in a close election, which is why the Romney campaign has a phone bank in Cleveland, among other places, aimed specifically at encouraging expatriates to vote.

“With the U.S. presidential election just over two months away and the Republican convention opening on Tuesday, it is not lost on either camp that American expatriates might make a difference this year,” The New York Times reports.

Kory Bardash, who works for an organization called Republicans Abroad Israel, says the focus on the get-out-the-expat vote effort is centered in two places.

“We've compiled lists of thousands of names,” Mr. Bardash tells The Times, but the focus is on key swing states. “It's all about Florida and Ohio.”